KEY POINTS
- Vladimir Putin pledges a thorough investigation into the jet crash that apparently killed Yevgeny Prigozhin.
- It came as Russia's president delivered a mixed tribute to the paramilitary boss.
- Authorities say Prigozhin was on the passenger list of a private jet that crashed on Thursday.
Russian President Vladimir Putin sent his condolences to the family of Yevgeny Prigozhin on Thursday, breaking his silence after the mercenary leader's plane crashed with no survivors two months after he led a mutiny against army chiefs.
Putin's comments, which suggested he harboured decidedly mixed feelings about , were the most definitive yet on Prigozhin's fate. Before he spoke, the only official statement had come from the aviation authority which said .
Who was Yevgeny Prigozhin?
- Yevgeny Prigozhin spent nine years in prisons for crimes including robbery and fraud and was released in 1990, towards the end of the Soviet Union.
- It was then he first met Vladimir Putin, who was then an aide to the mayor of St Petersburg. Prigozhin was later known as "Putin's chef" after catering for Kremlin events.
- Prigozhin founded private military company Wagner in 2014, and its fighters have supported Russia's allies in Syria, Libya, and the Central African Republic.
- Wagner also supported Russia in its invasion of Ukraine but, in June, the group's fighters took control of the southern city of Rostov-on-Don and shot down a number of military helicopters, killing their pilots, as they advanced towards Moscow.
- Russian authorities said Prigozhin was on board a plane that crashed north of Moscow, two months after he led the mutiny against the Russian army.
Putin's mixed tribute to Prigozhin: 'He made serious mistakes'
Russian investigators have opened a probe into what happened, but have not yet said what they suspect caused the plane to suddenly fall from the sky northwest of Moscow on Wednesday evening.
Nor have they officially confirmed the identities of the 10 bodies recovered from the wreckage.
US officials told Reuters that Washington is looking at a number of theories over what brought down the plane, including a surface-to-air missile.
The US Department of Defense on Thursday said there was currently no information to suggest that a surface-to-air missile took down the plane.
The presumed death of Prigozhin leaves Russian President Vladimir Putin stronger in the short term, removing a powerful figure who launched a 23-24 June and threatened to make him look weak.
But it would also deprive Putin of a forceful and astute player who had proved his utility to the Kremlin by war and by advancing Russian interests across Africa which are now likely to be re-organised.
It remains to be seen too how Wagner fighters, some of whom have already spoken of betrayal and foul play, react.
Pledging a thorough investigation which he said would take time, Putin said that "preliminary data" indicated that Prigozhin and other Wagner employees had been on the downed plane. The passenger list suggests that Wagner's core leadership team was flying with him too and had also perished.
Putin paid generous tribute to the renegade mercenary calling him a talented businessman who knew how to look after his own interests and who could, when asked, do his bit for the common cause.
Russian investigators have opened a probe into what happened, but have not yet said what they suspect caused the plane to suddenly fall from the sky. Source: AAP, SIPA USA / Kommersant Photo Agency
"I want to express my most sincere condolences to the families of all the victims. It's always a tragedy," Putin said in televised remarks made during a meeting in the Kremlin with the Moscow-installed chief of Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine.
"I had known Prigozhin for a very long time, since the start of the 90s. He was a man with a difficult fate, and he made serious mistakes in life."
Russian President Vladimir Putin described Yevgeny Prigozhin (pictured) as a flawed character. Source: AAP / AP
Crash theories emerge
The Embraer Legacy 600 executive jet, which had been flying from Moscow to St Petersburg, crashed near the village of Kuzhenkino in the Tver region north of Moscow.
A Reuters reporter at the crash site on Thursday morning saw men carrying away black body bags on stretchers. Part of the plane's tail and other fragments lay on the ground near a wooded area where forensic investigators had erected a tent.
The Baza news outlet, which has good sources among law enforcement agencies, reported that investigators were focusing on a theory that one or two bombs may have been planted on board.
Residents of Kuzhenkino, the village near the crash site, said they had heard a bang and then saw the jet plummet to the ground. The plane showed no sign of a problem until a precipitous drop in its final 30 seconds, according to flight-tracking data.
One villager, who gave his name as Anatoly, said: "It wasn't thunder, it was a metallic bang - let's put it that way."
Mourners left flowers and lit candles near Wagner's offices in St. Petersburg and at other locations across Russia.
A Telegram channel linked to Wagner, Grey Zone, pronounced Prigozhin dead on Wednesday evening, hailing him as a hero and a patriot who had died at the hands of "traitors to Russia".
An informal memorial next to the former 'PMC Wagner Centre' in St Petersburg, Russia on Thursday, Source: AAP, AP / Dmitri Lovetsky
Amid the absence of verified facts, some of his supporters have pointed the finger of blame at the state, others at Ukraine, which marked its Independence Day on Thursday
